Posts by Matthew 17

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Mars may be dead, and was always so, however...

Living there would be far more difficult than moving to Antarctica. All of these things are known. However given that you can't poison groundwater or displace a species of rare frogs there's no reason why you couldn't mine the shit out of it or use it as a stepping stone for deeper space exploration. As robotics and AI improve then Mars could be the next Cybertron colonised by robots, set to the task of mining and assembling huge domed cities for those biological bipeds to visit / live. Once the technology for automating the manufacturing of new robots exist from mining the raw materials to the assembly line then that process would run itself without cost or human intervention. Humans are limited in where they can live almost all of the universe would kill them instantly but machines can live anywhere without much limitation, one day they'll realise that.

Re: @ST Companies always withhold details of security flaws

"Apple isn't being sued because Meltdown and Spectre exist. Apple is being sued because they have known about Spectre and Meltdown since June 2017 at the latest and they did absolutely nothing about either until the vulnerabilities were publicly exposed."

True but that just shows that the fix took 6 months to write & test and go into production. That's the norm with any security issue that's discovered, you get a 6 month window to fix it before it goes public. These stories only create the panic when it goes over the 6 month period for the fix to be available. For how easy it was to patch would only be known to Apple's developers. There will likely be 100's of other yet to be public security issues they and similar are working on right now.

As amazing as it will be when there are bootprints on Mars

The 'boffins' always seem to suggest that getting there is the difficult bit, the living there and the teraforming parts are a doddle.

We should land a bunch of Elonites onto central Antarctica with only what you can parachute in from orbit and see how they get on, it'll be infinitely more easy to find water, use solar power, grow food etc there so it should be a complete piece of piss.

Won't have been formatted

Well at least it's secure now

Needs to happen

They've been a load of space stations, they're always temporary structures that eventually get dumped in the ocean. The only reason there's the current space station is due to the lemon of a transport vehicle that was the space shuttle. The US government junked Apollo and they had to start again, spent far more money on building something that wasn't as good and considerably less safe to fly. If they'd kept Apollo they could have had a decades old moon base and more by now.

If they don't do this they'll end up with nothing, no ISS and China, Russia, Musk or whomever will set something up there. Going direct to Mars is far more complex than having something as a launch point, the Moon is ideal for this. Learning how to mine the Moon and building things there will provide invaluable data for doing the same on Mars and beyond. It's sat right there an is only a few days away, criminal that it's been ignored for nearly 45 years

I've been running it since beta 5

I have a MBP that I use as a guinea pig / test platform to ensure that all my soft and hard ware will operate correctly before I update my production machines. The only bug I've still not seen fixed is the nightshift mode seems all over the place, flicking on and off, but the rest of the platform seems decent and nearly all my software now works.

I have to say though that I'm hugely impressed with APFS it's been a massive speed boost to the performance of the machine. Normally I wait for a .1 release but sod it I've been seduced by speed.

this shouldn't be encouraged, it's another 1st world problem

We don't or at least shouldn't need 'protecting' from stereotypes, bad role models or anything we might see on the TV, on a billboard or on a computer. We seem to be encouraging a world where people are increasingly fragile and can't think for themselves, we need to tiptoe over endless eggshells to avoid offending them.

Obese people are told to be 'body confident' rather than to lose weight, they cost the NHS £5billion every year, there are so many of these body confident people about no-one notices any more, yet if you see someone who is anorexic then it's rare, people look and stare, this is despite the thin/athletic models in the magazines, on the TV, in adverts etc, or the slim manakins in the shop windows. They then use 'real women' in the adverts to avoid offence meaning that to be one you have to be overweight, if you are slim/athletic then you're presumably part of the problem! If you're a man that's useless around the house or can't change a wheel on a car then you're a stereotype, if you know how to fix stuff and don't have a problem with DIY and keeping the house clean then you're just another man that's keeping women down. If you're a woman who likes being a housewife then you're oppressed! Any model used will always offend someone, it's what they're there for, it gives them validation. It's a competition to see who can be the most frequently offended and self-righteous.

People don't need protecting, children should be taught how to think, not what to think. You should be confident in your own self and mind, your problems are your problems, they're not everyone else's, you're just as special as everyone else, i.e you're not special. No-one is interested in what you identify with if that's all you've got to contribute to the world. Go out and do something, be the best you can. If you find that the way a product is advertised offensive, awesome, don't buy their product, don't complain about it and demand that it's banned. We're bending over backwards for this tiny but very vocal minority of people who contribute nothing but demand everything. It's long past time we just ignored them and got on with our lives as all of these harmful adverts or stereotypes don't bother us, we're don't even notice them as we're just getting on with it. If you object to how something is advertised then just don't buy it. Marketers create adverts they think will help sell a product, if it doesn't work they'll try a different approach.

I only clicked the article because it had a C64 on the picture

Content licensing breaks everything

I have an ATV, I quite like it I can use it as an AirPlay device, mirror my Mac on it and I use it for YouTube/Netflix/iPlayer/4OD/Plex. there isn't an Amazon app for it which is a PITA as I've only 2 HDMI sockets on my TV and the other one has the BD player in. Ideally I'd have a smart telly that has all the functionality built in so I can just keep the DB player for the odd occasion when it's used.

But I don't want to have a subscription to Netflix, and another to Amazon Prime, and another to Apple, and another to something else all to just watch the odd thing that I do. Would be nice to just have a box that lets me watch anything on no matter who makes it and I'd just get an invoice at the end of the month paid via direct debit.

Re: "Once upon a time, you couldn't get a PC of equivalent spec as a Mac Pro"

In 2013 the trash can was good value, you couldn't buy a machine with that CPU/GPU's/RAM/PCIeSSD etc for the price, even a DIY machine would cost far more.

Yes that was way back in 2013 and the world has moved on. I guess for the most part people didn't need expensive Xeon CPU's as they didn't work in music/video production, they just wanted an 'iMac Pro' with a modern i7 and decent GPU in to play games on.

not without warning

It doesn't automatically update the OS.

If you do it checks / prompts to see if you have a backup of your device.

If you're worried that a software update might break something then don't update your device straight away, if there are issues they'll soon make the news, if nothing happens then it's safe to update your device, but make sure you have a backup first.

Surely any system is secure until someone finds a way to break in?

If, because there are fewer hackers on MacOS it has less malware, rootkits and other exploits then it's by definition safer. If you put a Windows PC onto the Internet naked then it'll get owned almost straight away, whereas if you're using MacOS, Linux or any other unix-like OS then you're almost certainly going to be fine as long as you keep it all patched and don't do anything obviously daft.

But to argue that it might be like a sieve we just don't know and there isn't anyone to prove it then by the same argument it might be the most secure operating system ever devised. I think the anti-virus people are just annoyed they can't get any money out of Mac users and want to scare them into buying their software subscriptions.

Does it affect Logic Pro X?

as it can load GarageBand files.

Also, possibly worth mentioning that if you get a new Mac it does come bundled with what were the iWork / iLife apps. I generally do a reinstall of the OS when I get one just so it's a nice barebones install, it doesn't then install anything extra 'by default' unless you visit it the app store and download them.

I think it's why he wants to move to Mars

He knows that to realise his world view almost everyone will be without a job. He's no concept that not everyone lives in that Californian IT bubble. If he can therefore create his new society/cult of mecca humans then it won't be a problem.

He accepts that if you drive something for a living you'll be out of work.

He then notes that if cars drive themselves people will stop buying them, they'll just turn up, take you where you want to be and drop you off.

He also notes that cars spend 85% of their time parked up so not only will no-one buy them we'll need far less of them too.

If you're not owning or driving a car then you'll not get insurance or visit a filling station and buy some chewing gum and a CD of 80's rock classics whilst you're there.

And we could 'drive' whilst drunk and watch Youtube and there shouldn't be any congestion which is nice.

But those tens of millions of people who're out of work and won't buy into this utopia are just spoilsports and need to be given a 'basic income' as compensation for now being unemployable, this will be paid by tax on the ever dwindling supply of people who's jobs have yet to be eradicated.

YOU HAVE A WOMAN'S BOTTOM!

Malware and viruses aren't quite the same thing though

So a virus should be able to infect another machine on the network without the user doing anything.

Here you have to open a specific word document in Word presumably that's been engineered to include some malware. It's not going to 'infect' any other Mac on the network or replicate itself to be included into any of your other documents.

Whereas if you run an unprotected Windows machine on the internet then it'll run into trouble in minutes whether you open a document or not.

Still don't see any compelling reason to install anti-virus on a Mac, I run malwarebytes if I'm doing some housekeeping, never seen it report that it's found something bad.

The software has issues but still a user error

If you want a streaming service with no local content then the software will sack off your local music collection. If you're a spod like me that has 15 different versions of the same album and 50 different versions of the same piece then a basic streaming service isn't going to work. If you ever accidentally push the button to let 'iTunes organise your music' and witness the instant clusterfuck it makes of all your perfectly organised files it's instantly clear how such a streaming service isn't going to work. There's little concept of albums, different recordings or performances, they're just tracks, it's 'this song' by 'that artist' that's all it seems to understand, if you have straightforward music listening habits then it might work.

I may be one of those odd people that still buys music but I have 1000's of albums all ripped to the computer and use iTunes to play them, other than the software being really slow and clunky after version 10.x I can't say I've ever had something go missing or lose access to my music. If I'm working on a new song then I'll bounce it as an MP4 to iTunes and copy that to my iPhone to audition in the car, again this is more laborious with all the extra shite they've had to add for Apple Music, it would be nice to be able to switch all the extra features off and turn it back into the good ol' days of the iPod.

But if your music library is important or vital to you, don't run software that you know will delete files!

Far from boring

Ever since the space shuttle hampered space exploration as it sapped the cash and delivered little the days of NASA being the heros and people visited the Moon seemed gone forever. However with the advent of SpaceX they really seemed to have kicked the whole thing up the backside. NASA and the ESA have new launchers, there's plans to take people beyond LEO again.

In a world where we have people thinking that the US faked their moon landings, and so many who live in fear of science and technology. Perhaps all this progress will help open everyone's eyes again.

Still not convinced that barge landing approach is the easiest or most reliable way of going about recovery but fingers crossed they perfect it, and continue to kick backsides.

I like the idea of fuelcel powered vehicles

Quick refuel, fewer batteries to lug about and recycle. No urban pollution, and if the hydrogen comes from zero carbon sources like nuclear and is transported via fuelcell powered vehicles to the pumps then you could argue the whole thing was carbon free.

However, why is there the need to make electric cars or those with an alternative drivetrain look so daft.

Just give me a Mondeo or BMW looking car and whack in a fuelcell. Someone on the Internet recently converted a Corvette to all electric and it still would do north of 150MPH as before.

But regardless, make a practical product that is of benefit to your average person and they'll buy one over the normal petrol or diesel vehicles. Doesn't need any gimmicks or daft styling.

will do methinks for a new Mac Pro

Re: Phone in hand.

There was also the concern that if they were forced to break into this phone, they would then be expected to use their tool to break into other iDevices as the precedent had been set and the software written.

I suspect that if the G-Men want to tarnish Apple over this they simply have to release a story that they broke into the phone (they're therefore not as secure as Apple claim) and that they found an evil plot involving baddies on the phone that wasn't backed up to the iCloud, for some reason.

Given that they still need drivers on trains and the tube...

I can't see driverless cars being that welcome.

I'd have The tube, trains done, then buses and freight (they'd save money by not having to stop whilst the driver has a nap and a prostitute). Once all those are sorted then cars can drive themselves. As we're assimilated by the little identical taxis that move us from A to B whilst we browse the web and data is collected to sell us things then we can all start wearing the silver suits and form part of the hive mind. It was always the vision of the 21st century that we'd all be alike so best start conforming.

being thick...

You don't install transmission, it's a stand alone app. Nor do you run it as root or grant it privileges. Is it just scrambling the users docs in their home directory, so any backup would be fine to recover or is it able to encrypt the attached volume(s) if so, how?

The update makes the phone work, but disables the touch ID

It's a sensible compromise. If you're cheap and get a backstreet techie to swap your home button then your phone will still work but you've lost the touch ID feature. If you want that back take it to an approved store. It's not Apple turning back on their security model.